Airlines To Pay More By The Pound For Airport

The Fort Lauderdale area boasts the nation`s newest airport terminal, a state-of-the-art facility where convenience is the key and even the cuisine in restaurants and bars is world-class.

Of course, there`s a hitch.

Somebody`s got to pay the quarter-billion-dollar price tag, plus interest. That would be the airlines. And somebody`s got to pay them.

That`s right. The traveling public.

``It`s like any business,`` said John Hotard, a spokesman for American Airlines in Fort Worth, Texas. ``You determine what your costs are, and then you determine what you set your price at. It just gets blended into the formula.``

The good news is that continued competition at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood and Miami International Airports will probably keep ticket costs between South Florida and principal northern destinations low, said Leo Duggan of the Airport Operators Council in Washington, D.C. ``The rise is very modest,`` he said.

Thursday, the new south terminal at the Fort Lauderdale airport opened in a much-heralded debut. The other new terminals will be finished in late 1986.

All of the construction has been financed by a $262.5 million bond at 10.25 percent interest. That will mean the aviation department faces a $27 million- a-year debt service over 25 years, beginning with the completion of the project.

The airlines paid $3.5 million a year to use the airport when expansion began in 1982. In 1986, they will begin to pay $20.7 million in all to help finance the debt. And the airlines plan another $21 million in investments themselves.

Users of the airport pay on the basis of the landing weight of incoming aircraft -- at Fort Lauderdale currently, a rate of 30 cents per thousand pounds. That will increase to 63 cents per thousand pounds in 1986.

The gross weight of a Boeing 727, the most common model used here, is 191,000 pounds, according to the Official Airline Guide; a Lockheed L1011, 430,000 pounds; and a McDonnell Douglas DC-9, 121,000 pounds. So landing costs will double, to $76 to $270 per plane.

Still, despite the increase, it will cost less to land in Fort Lauderdale than in Miami, where the charge is 99 cents per thousand pounds for jets to land.

``Fort Lauderdale is a very competitive market,`` said Donald Pevsner, a Miami consumer attorney who specializes in airline costs. ``That`s what keeps your air fares low. It`s the competition and the capacity that sets the fares.``

At Eastern Airlines, Fort Lauderdale Manager Pete Goss said, ``We adjust our fares according to the market. It does reach the bottom line to the point that it may be reflected in our charges overall. But nothing substantial.``